Artix




December 28th, 2007
The Legend of Sepulchure
Now with 33% MORE DOOM!
Titan Battle Date reluctantly changed to next Friday due to DOOOOOM
He was once one of King Alteon's greatest Knights. Every villain in the world fears him and subjugates to his command. He is empowered... nay, infused with a magic so evil we wonder if he is a man or darkness itself. If you have hatched your Dragon, you know that the boxes were mistakenly switched. You received the Dragon destined to destroy the world, while Sepulchure got.... Fluffy... the "good" Dragon destined to save it! It gets worse... Sepulchure wields the Doom weapon known as the Necrotic blade. This may be the most powerful weapon of its kind! Is Sepulchure or that cursed weapon in control? How did Sepulchure become like this? Who is HIS master? We cannot promise you will be able to discover these things from the upcoming battle.... but one thing is certain. Sepulchure does not like failure and the business with the wind Orbs has exhausted his patience! Oh, I nearly forgot... they say Sepulchure must have gotten a Dragon Amulet this holiday season --Fluffy has been spotted soaring through the as a full sized Dracolich!

Sepulchure Boss fight12
Sepulchure, the Necrotic blade... and Fluffy?

The secret Titan battle has been revealed! If your heart skipped a beat and your mind is racing... you are not alone. This is what we have all been waiting for. An encounter that will set the game back on the path of the main storyline. I am sharing this secret with you as a reward for defeating the war (in place of releasing the battle that is not yet ready) . We have been working on this for a while and it was our every intention to launch on time, however with so many of our team visiting family and the rest of the team battling off the cold that went around the lab... we hope you understand us postponing this a week to make sure it is done right. Once again, I am very sorry. However, look at bright side.... your impending demise at the hands of an unstoppable villian has been temporarily pushed back. Use this time wisely to prepare yourself for the battle to come! So, instead of ending this year with a bang we are going to start 2008 off with a HUGE bang! An encounter with Sepulchure is not be something you will soon forget...

Congratulations on winning the Frostvale war this week and we hope you are enjoying the boss fight. Prepare for your gift boxes to open as we usher in the New Year! Join Cysero and I here on the design notes every day next week as we share the upcoming plans we have created for DragonFable and leak out nuggets of information about your upcoming foe.

FORUM QUESTION: There is just a little bit of time left to influence the upcoming event. What powers do you think Fluffly (the Undead Dragon of a Knight of Darkness) possess? See you on the forums!

   
Artix

December 25th, 2007
Merry Christmas!
The war has reached 100% and many have you commented very positively on the Xanta fight, and the Act 4 Frostvale! For those of you who were too busy getting real presents, the town will stay up for a while so you will have a chance to grab the gifts from the frost moglins before they unwrap themselves closer to the new year.

There have also been quite a few positive comment made on the music in the post-war Frostvale. This little music loop was composed and performed by my real-life roomate and best friend, Canon.

It went kinda like this:
Canon: *Picks up phone* Hello?
Cysero: Hey dude, if I asked you make a music loop to go in this year's post-war Frostvale in three days, do you think that you could do it?
Canon: I can try.
Cysero: Kthanksbye.
Canon: Later.

*One half hour later*

Canon: Listen to this and let me know how on target you think I am for what you need.
Cysero: *listens to 35 second wav. file* THAT'S PERFECT!
Canon: ... Well, it's not quite done yet...
Cysero: *music still looping in the background* Artix wants to know if he can use it in the online holiday card.
Canon: ...Just give me a few minutes to finish it...
Cysero: Thanks, we'll use it right away! Artix is adding the file to the online card now.
Canon: *sigh*

*3 minutes pass*

Canon: Here.
Cysero: *listens to finished music loop* Wow, you're right. That's way better.
Canon: Told ya.

This is his first bit of music for DF, and the first real music loop that we've actually had (the Dracolitch doesn't loop and the cave music isn't REALLY real music). If you guys like it, let us know and we can start adding more loops like this to the game. It makes the load take a little bit longer but In the end, you guys really tell US what to do, this is YOUR game... so whatever you like, we add (if we can).

Thanks for making this a great year for DF and a great year for the Artix Entertainment community. We've got big plans for the upcoming year, and the game will only keep growing. With your help, it will KEEP being one of the best games on the internet! Merry Christmas and happy Holidays!

I'm going to go practice my uke more.

   
Artix

December 24th, 2007
Exciting News!
Lords and Ladies, we have 3 points on tonight's agenda (I say tonight because it is nearly 2 AM, HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVE!)

FIRST! The Deathknight test armor has JUST been released! Ballyhoo has returned to DF with a BANG bringing a FREE test armor that ANY player can try on and use for as long as they like (Until Ballyhoo once again vanishes into the mists).

Just click on the Ballyhoo button in town, watch the sponsored content, and then the armors is yours to wear until you log out! You can go back and get the armor as many times as you like, as often as you like! Enjoy!

SECOND! Artix, Canon (my real life roommate), Alces and my friend Tempus all got together and got me a WICKED Electric Ukulele! Here is Mr. Fancy Pants (my Uke) next to Canon's guitar, which is apparently his big brother.

But Cysero, you say, I wasn't aware that you knew how to play the uke. I don't, dear friends, but when has that ever stopped any of us from doing anything? This pretty much seals the deal for my place in the band.

THIRD: You guys are nearing the end of the Frostval '07 war, and soon you will be facing Xanta Claus. IF you are powerful enough to defeat him (I wonder how many of you will admit defeat?) then you will unlock Act 4 of A Frostvale Tale. That is the post-war town of Frostvale where many gifts and surprises await both free and DA player alike. But i feel that i should prepare you for one of the surprises. You know that little Music checkbox in your sound options? You might want to flip that puppy into the ON position.

I doubt that I will be updating the Design Notes on Christmas so I'll take the time now to say that I hope that whatever you celebrate around this time of year brings you peace, happiness and at least a bit of unexpected joy (The unexpected kind is the best kind). Happy Frostval to One and All!

   

Artix




December 21th, 2007
The Battle to Save Frostvale Continues!
Cutscene #2 was just unlocked
We have just discovered that Ice Master Yeti is NOT behind this! What is Xan doing playing with ice magic? Xanta Claus!? Things are really heating up... erm... cooling up in Frostvale as you and your fellow adventurers continue on the path to the grand finale.

As a special reward, if you beat the war by the end of next week, we will release the highly anticipated third Titan fight next Friday! TWO massive endings in one week. Can you think of a better way to end 2007?

Art Contest Winners Released...
New Holiday Card!

The submissions for the art contest are amazing! Everyone who participated did an incredible job. Our judges had a very difficult time chosing winners -- thank you all for making this so difficult for them! So....

There are 48 winners!
Including 15 Grand Prize winners (C inderashx, CrZ, Divreon, Genetic, Lkeas, Pearl, II_BLACKPANTHER_II, Mr Paper Guy, Ravens Ashes, Reibear, Reign_Man, Romak, Taranir, Tomix, and zenoka) and 33 additional winners!

Note: Geopetal will be awarding the winners with their selected prize (Ztokens or DragonCoins or Novagems) on Sunday.


Gift Certificates
Safiria and Nythera have been getting a lot of emails from parents and friends who wanted to five gift certificates for DragonAmulets this holiday season. AQ has had them for a while but we never had time to get a system built. A special thanks to Captain Rhubarb for stepping in and getting it working at the last minute (Go Capt go!) Gift Certificates are now available for DragonFable.

   

Artix




December 19th, 2007
Undead Slaying 301 (Applied Spectology)
The holidays are a great time for family fun and cheer. While the masses enjoy their well deserved time of happiness -- the duty of keeping the walking dead* at bay falls upon those of us who secretly work behind the scenes. It is a little known fact that supernatural hauntings more than triple during the holiday season. It is a credit to undead slayers everywhere that you will not notice so much as a peep of undead invasions**, vampires or even a simple zombie attack until at least the 1st of the New Year***. If you are an undead slayer as well, be on special guard this holiday season. Everyone is counting on us! Ooooh... there is another one. That will make 7 and I have not even finished lunch yet... Battle on!

* and Sometimes floating, limping, hovering, riding (headless horseman is so lazy), and occasionally teleporting.
** My favorite... everyone needs a hobby!
*** With the only exception being the Zombie New Years party of 1999... and I was proud to help them with their New Years resolution of getting more excorcise!


   
Artix

December 18th, 2007
So I was thinkin...

Do you think Artix wants to kill Ghost because he's undead?

That's all I got.

   
Artix

December 17th, 2007
The Theft of War Waves!

Last night I did something that accidentally stole 4% of the war waves from under you guys. Sorry.

To make it up to you, I just put them back and it boosted you guys to 33%! The first Cutscene has unlocked and you guys are tearing through this war, which is great!

I hope that you guys are having as much fun as I am. This time of year has always been my very favorite and I turn from a cheeeball into a MASSIVE CHEESE MOON during the holidays. We've got all of our decorations up in my apartment, and I've been wearing a Santa hat everywhere, every day since I bought it last Thursday.

This year Artix suggested that we all bring in game related decorations for our office holiday tree, so I built a Scupley Zorbak. I think he came out pretty good, so I'm going to show him off.

Artix and Zhoom of having a jam session in the music room so I'm going to go have a listen and demand that they perform things that are well past their current abilities.

   

Artix




December 14th, 2007
Double DragonFable Release
11pm Friday Update
"We have been here over 13 hours battling bugs and fearlessly attempting an unthinkable multiple release over multiple games.... oddly, there is no other place I would rather be" - Artix

"I want to put my head through my computer screen, but I am really having fun!" - Cysero

DOUBLE DRAGONFABLE RELEASE IS LIVE!
Frostvale: Chapter 2 has begun in an all new story that has a suprise villian! But first, complete the Ninja quest chain which ends in a climatic boss then titan battle! We released 5 quests in DragonFable today -- and the ninja one is REALLY funny. The Titan fight requires a little strategy too, which is great! As many of you saw shortly after our stealth release, we had a number of problems including black screens. These should all be fixed now, but we are not leaving the underground lab until everything is confirmed.

Next time, on DragonFable!
We hope you are enjoying the current release. There is so much to do and the art looks fantastic! From watching the forums, the re-cap of last year's Frostvale is a hit! Frostscythe is a great battle too. We have a lot to do for next week as everything continues. Same dragon time (maybe earlier if we can help it), same dragon channel!

P.S. I changed the icons on the buttons in town. Do you like it?
P.S.S.
If you are enjoying our releases, upgrade your character by obtaining a DragonAmulet. In addition to supporting DragonFable, you will unlock all of the exclusive areas and items in the game and gain the ability to grow your Dragon to full size for Titan battles. It is a one-time only purchase and with our on-going releases one of the best values you can get!
P.S.S.S.
I love that you can see the weapons in the new shop interface.

   

Artix
Artix

Geo

December 12th, 2007
Child's Play
When Cysero showed this charity to us we instantly knew we wanted to get involved. Child's Play is a charity that brings the gaming community together to help sick children in hospitals across the world.

The charity provides video games, books, games and toys for hospitalized kids who are going through things most adults have never had to deal with.

We are very pleased to announce that thanks to you, this year we were able to support Child's Play! All three games contributed... and if you look on their site we are even listed as a corporate sponsor. Thank you for making a difference.

This is a great charity and I think that if anyone has the inclination and a few spare bucks your should donate through paypal, or hit the Amazon wish list and help a specific kid in a specific hospital. If you have ever had anyone that you care about get really sick then you can imagine how much this would mean to these kids and their families.

https://www.ChildsPlayCharity.org/


   
Artix

December 12th, 2007
Coming this Week
It looks like it is going to snow. How strange would it be if 4,995 years ago.... it started snowing too! (Likely) The Legend of Frostvale: Part II will begin this week. If you did not get to participate in last years heart warming adventure... you get to play the quest to catch up and join us on part 2! This year... Cysero said we can finally do a silly skit that I have been wanting to do for three years! Also, this week will we launch the next Titan battle ending the Ninja chain. NEXT Week - the highly anticipated..... well... let us just say you are going to want your Dragon Amulet to not miss battling the biggest, baddest boss in DragonFable. Period.

P.S. The holiday art contest is going so well. We are going to make you a special card too!

Behind the Scenes
I am sorry that this was the first I got to make a post for you. I went into the hospital for a procedure on Monday and when I was driven home they told me "I COULD" make a design notes post but maybe I should stop swinging my fists at invisible pink undead gorrillaphants first. Cysero just flew back from Vegas (he was at a wedding) and Geo and Sasha were sick. (excuses.... excuses... ) and Daimyo ate my homework! As you can imagine, on our insane timeline even losing one day of productivity is crippling. Fortunately we do not have "hours" and caffeeine is the 100% natural replacement for sleep. We will be releasing on time! In unrelated news we really liked the suggestions you made for band names. We all laughed pretty hard at "Imminent Deadline." You might have picked us a winner! (It also had the initials ID so we could call it ID# for short.... and I am sure we could do something fun with that.) After Deathknight we should do a bard class and make a special minigame to play with it like Dance Dance Revolution.

   

Geo

December 7th, 2007
Holiday Art Contest
Time to start up December's contest! For this one we'd like you guys to come up with AE-themed, all original art, holiday e-cards and wallpapers. Come up with an AE-themed holiday card or wallpaper using all original artwork. You can draw, sculpt, make a giant Falconreach snow fort, as long as everything is made by you!

The contest thread will close Monday, December 17th at 5:00 pm EST (server time), with the winner being announced on the 21st of December.

Rules:
1. All artwork must be original. This means no screenshots from the games can be used.
2. The entry must be clearly AE-themed.
3. Only two entries per person and please include them both in the same post, make sure to convert to .jpg format and try to keep within the preferred size range of 800x600.

Band Names!
Kellehendros
came up with an awesome band name, Imminent Deadline. This is one of the guys favorites so far! Make sure to post any other good ideas that you think of!

Artix

December 6th, 2007
THE MEGA-POST
It has been far too long since we got to talk*. I miss you guys! So, instead of working on the upcoming releases I am going to make everyone else on the team REALLY nervous (again) and catch up on all of the things I have been dying to tell you. First, here is what is happening in the three games:

* Since Monday!

DRAGONFABLE
This week in DragonFable we released FOUR new quests including the first of three Titan fights.We are preparing to start a brand new art contest with huge number of prizes. On Friday Giftboxes will go into town. They will be wrapped but you may be able to figure out the contents by the descriptions. Next week we are planning back to back Titan fights ending in a showdown with the most menacing character in DragonFable, period!
Onward to... wait... you are already here!

MECHQUEST
On Friday in MechQuest we are going Ghost Hunting! We will be releasing a new shop featuring our most bizzare character yet, Mysterious Johnson. We are even going to add some voice clips.... I hope you find him as funny as we do. Just thinking about him makes me laugh.. mostly because when Warlic does the voice and the facial expressions and we all start cracking up. We are adding a special new type of weapon for collecing ghosts too.
Onward to MechQuest.com

ADVENTUREQUEST
In AdventureQuest, Frostvale has just started! Giftboxes are going in and there is even a new house model to upgrade too.
Onward to Battleon.com

T-SHIRTS
Aisha created 12 new shirts based on some popular, some funny, and some downright absurd things from AQ, DF and MQ. We were hoping to use Cafe um..... shirty printy place's print on demand to get a few up for the holiday -- Unfortunately the quality of the test shirts that arrived today was... well... I like staying positive. So in short we are currently searching for another company to help us make them. J!nx has always been good to us, but we want to try a BUNCH of goofy shirts and their minimum order to make them is over 100 per design. Holiday deadlines have never worked out for me... remember the three years I tried to make the Twilly and Zorbak dolls? There are still a few left from the original and only batch created if you want to pick one up.


THE BAND!
Alright.... before we begin, I ask that you please sit down. <momentary silence> Are you sure you are ready for this? I warned you it would be a BIG post. We took room formerly known as the "Sound Room (AKA Creative media anolog and digitical vibration manipulation studio and occassionally art and coffee break room when no one is looking)" and converted it to a "Band Room". Zhoom is learning the drums. Warlic and I are playing Guitar. Nythera is on bass and Safiria is singing. You can see we put the equipment in the room as pictured below. (The black guitar in the case of picture #2 is mine.... I call it the DOOM AXE) You can see my distortion peddle in that pic too.

Now, I know what you are thinking..... probably something like "OMG YOU PEOPLE ARE INSANE STOP DOING STUFF ALL THE TIME... LIKE LEARN TO RELAX OR SLEEP OR SOMETHING!!!!!!" Well, this all goes back to that post we were talking about a few weeks ago. The one about making goals for yourself. One of my life goals, is I wanted to play in a band.

On that note I would like to announce: We suck.

But since Warlic is the only one of us with any previous music talent (he did get his degree in songwriting) it is to be expected. Zhoom, as you might have expected is learning drums at an insanely fast rate. (Note: We got electronic drums so we could turn the volume down and not get... you know... evicted.) This brings me to the point of this post. To make a goal you have to set some sort of reasonable objective. My grandfather recently came to visit and when he heard we were doing this he said, "in order to be a real band, you need a name, an original song and play it live in front of an audience.". Well... we are working on a few songs but we certainly do not have a name. Then I got to thinking... maybe if you help us come up with a name. Especially since it is highly likely that our lyrics will all be revolving around AQ/DF/MQ.... yup, start groaning now! Then... once we get a song or two down we can play our live performance... in front of you. (maybe I should have asked the others permission before posting this, lol) See you on the forums!

P.S. Cysero said he would not join the band unless we found him an electric ukelele. (Do they even make this?)!

DragonFable
Death Knight Armor Testing

Ballyhoo in DragonFable announced that she found a sponsor! We are scheduled to at long last release this new class armor on the 30th of December. (Yay everyone is going undead near my birthday! *gets Battleaxe*) In addition to this I have a long detailed list that was created on the forums of things that have been sitting in the to-do list for a while. My new year's resolution is going to complete each and every one of them in 2008.

NEW Art Contest Starting Tomorrow!
Geopetal is getting everything set up for our December Art contest. This contest will be open to all players and span all three games with an insane number of DragonCoin, Nova Gem, and Z-Token prizes. We are going to have a few huge grand prizes and I told them to go crazy with prizes for "above and beyond." Because this is spanning all games expect to have AT LEAST 3x the number of winners of our previous contests.

I have so much more... but I better get back to work. Today I am making a random fourtune cookie generator and a magic eight ball. Oh, check your email for the DragonFable newsletter. I just sent it out.


Note: Chocolate chip fortune cookies have a tragic design flaw.

Battle on!
- Artix

 

   
Artix

December 5th, 2007
Quad-Quest Release!
Today, (which I'd like to remind you is only Wednesday) we release, not one... not two... not THREE but FOUR quests, speeding Sho Nuff island toward it's grand finale.

If you haven't already checked them out, Thyton has two more quests for you in the Shadow of the wind village. One of which allows you to have a brief conversation with the ninja's old enemy Okuchi No Okami.

On the other side of the island, Rhubarb has two more quests available... the end of the pirate quest chain and the titan battle. This quest chain also allows you to see the true birth of Captain Rhubarb

I'd like to talk more about the amazing job that everyone on the DF staff did to get these four quests out to you two days early but I'm really tired and I want to go home.

Artix

December 4th, 2007
Artix Entertainment Shirts?

We are thinking about making some T-Shirts for DF, MQ and of course more for AQ. This is concept art that I made in 3 minutes, not a real shirt.

Think you guys might wear something like this? Shirt Suggestions? We have forums for that sort of thing.

Shrinks In the wash, HA!

 

 

 

Artix

December 3rd, 2007
Reversi Switchidity Swap Week!
This week is being turned upside down and inside out. Cats are barking and dogs are taking their Paladins for walks*. Things are insane and completely unpredictable**. Due to this cosmic abnormality the following events shall take place in the following order:

DragonFable Release on WEDNESDAY!
MechQuest Release on FRIDAY!

* In my home this is typical. "Woof!" Daimyo, shhh. They are trying to read.
** Actually, Cysero told me he had to skip town for a wedding a few months in advance and Warlic thought a few more days on Ghost hunting would be a good idea.

So in DragonFable, this Wednesday night expect two quests and the FIRST of THREE TITAN FIGHTS! (At long last... and the third will dive us right back into the main plot of the game.) In other news we had a double birthday last weekend -- Happy birthday Oishii and Thyton! As you can see below, Geopetal baked them a very special cake.


Yummmm, Twig birthday cake! (Secret fish inside.)

We were pleased with how well the server was handling the new Character Pages (Here is mine -- well, this is my real character. I do my testing on a different one). Honestly, I was a little scared of releasing the MQ and DF pages at the same time, but it looks like everything went ok. This year we are doing Frostvale: Part 2 in DragonFable (Do not worry, if you were not here during last years event you will be able to play through the quests... the dungeon was really "cool".... then join us for the new event!) We are going to be doing gifts again this year too.... so please post on the official wish list thread on what new in-game item you would like as a rare (feel free to draw pictures.) Oh, I nearly forgot. Geo is going to post a brand new contest this week that will have a "AQ/DF/MQ 2007" theme spanning all three games. There will be more prizes than you can shake a twig cake at. See you on the forums!